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93-670: The Honda Concerto is a car produced from 1988 to 1996. Designed to aim at European tastes, it was jointly developed by Honda and the Austin Rover Group and was introduced in Japan on 15 June 1988, and in European markets in October 1989. Japanese production finished in October 1992 and British production finished in 1995 (although a rebadged Rover diesel with Honda Concerto badging continued to be built until late 1996). The car

186-406: A 2-day week until the end of May as the manufacturer struggled to source supplies from Japan. It's thought around 22,500 cars were produced during this period. For the fiscal year 2018, Honda reported earnings of US$ 9.534 billion, with an annual revenue of US$ 138.250 billion, an increase of 6.2% over the previous fiscal cycle. Honda's shares traded at over $ 32 per share, and its market capitalization

279-453: A BMW 7 Series (G11) special edition simply called "The Final V12", the last BMW series production vehicle to be fitted with a V-12 engine. On 5 October 2023 it was announced that BMW UK CEO Chris Brownridge would succeed Torsten Müller-Ötvös as the CEO of Rolls-Royce starting 1 December 2023, as a result of Müller-Ötvös retiring. BMW is an abbreviation for Bayerische Motoren Werke . This name

372-543: A built-in balance shaft, an increased capacity to 1,170 cc (71 cu in) and enhanced performance to 75 kW (101 hp) for the R1200GS , compared to 63 kW (84 hp) of the previous R1150GS . More powerful variants of the oilhead engines are available in the R1100S and R1200S, producing 73 and 91 kW (98 and 122 hp), respectively. In 2004, BMW introduced the new K1200S Sports Bike which marked

465-498: A departure for BMW. It had an engine producing 125 kW (168 hp), derived from the company's work with the Williams F1 team, and is lighter than previous K models. Innovations include electronically adjustable front and rear suspension, and a Hossack-type front fork that BMW calls Duolever. BMW introduced anti-lock brakes on production motorcycles starting in the late 1980s. The generation of anti-lock brakes available on

558-777: A developer studio are part of the Honda Innovations group, formed in Spring 2017 and based in Mountain View, California . Through Honda Mobilityland , Honda also operate the Suzuka Circuit and Twin Ring Motegi racing tracks. Following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Honda announced plans to halve production at its UK plants. The decision was made to put staff at the Swindon plant on

651-503: A front-wheel drive saloon. The liftback and four-wheel drive saloon became available one month later, in July 1988. European deliveries, meanwhile, only began after British Concerto production commenced at the end of 1989. The Europe-only models, such as the 1.4, were released in October 1989. In Australia and some European countries, for example Germany and Switzerland, it was only sold as a five-door liftback so as to not compete internally with

744-698: A global recall of about 4.5 million vehicles, including 2.54 million in the U.S., over fuel pump failures, following earlier recalls in 2021 and 2020 for the same issue. Honda is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo , Japan. Their shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange , as well as exchanges in Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Fukuoka , London , Paris, and Switzerland. The company has assembly plants around

837-671: A mechanic at the Art Shokai garage, where he tuned cars and entered them in races. In 1937, with financing from his acquaintance Kato Shichirō, Honda founded Tōkai Seiki (Eastern Sea Precision Machine Company) to make piston rings working out of the Art Shokai garage. After initial failures, Tōkai Seiki won a contract to supply piston rings to Toyota , but lost the contract due to the poor quality of their products. After attending engineering school without graduating, and visiting factories around Japan to better understand Toyota's quality control processes known as " Five whys ", by 1941 Honda

930-531: A side-line and automobile manufacture ceased altogether. BMW's factories were heavily bombed during the war and its remaining West German facilities were banned from producing motor vehicles or aircraft after the war. Again, the company survived by making pots, pans, and bicycles. In 1948, BMW restarted motorcycle production. BMW resumed car production in Bavaria in 1952 with the BMW 501 luxury saloon. The range of cars

1023-520: A small 356 cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper Kei car tax bracket. The second production car from Honda was the S500 sports car, which followed the T360 into production in October 1963. Its chain-driven rear wheels pointed to Honda's motorcycle origins. Over the next few decades, Honda worked to expand its product line, operations and exports to numerous countries around

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1116-516: A turbodiesel Concerto was made available late in the model's life. In France, for instance, Rover's 200/400 series outsold the Concerto by a ratio of five-to-one, with diesels representing 80 percent of Rover sales. This model was a toe in the water for Honda, their first diesel-engined passenger car (aside from the 1993 Honda Jazz , a rebadged Isuzu only available in Japan). The Concerto TD, however,

1209-520: A year after its partner, Rover, was taken over by BMW in 1994. Petrol-engined models were built there until 1995, while the Rover-based diesel lasted until October 1996. It was replaced by a new, Swindon-built five-door Honda Civic liftback , itself a rebadged version of the Honda Domani which had replaced the Concerto in Japan in 1992. The Civic liftback was quite different from the rest of

1302-525: Is a Japanese multinational conglomerate that manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, and battery-powered equipment, founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda and headquartered in Minato, Tokyo , Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a production of 400 million by 19 December 2019. It is also the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year. Honda became

1395-500: Is a futuristic cauldron-shaped building, which was also designed by Karl Schwanzer and opened in 1972. The interior has a spiral theme and the roof is a 40-metre diameter BMW logo. BMW Welt , the company's exhibition space in Munich, was designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au and opened in 2007. It includes a showroom and lifting platforms where a customer's new car is theatrically unveiled to the customer. In 1975, sculptor Alexander Calder

1488-851: Is based in Alliston, Ontario . Honda has also created joint ventures around the world, such as Honda Siel Cars and Hero Honda Motorcycles in India, Guangzhou Honda and Dongfeng Honda in China, Boon Siew Honda in Malaysia and Honda Atlas in Pakistan. The company also runs a business innovation initiative called Honda Xcelerator , in order to build relationships with innovators, partner with Silicon Valley startups and entrepreneurs, and help other companies work on prototypes. Xcelerator had worked with reportedly 40 companies as of January 2019. Xcelerator and

1581-689: Is grammatically incorrect (in German, compound words must not contain spaces), which is why the grammatically correct form of the name, Bayerische Motorenwerke ( German pronunciation: [ˈbaɪʁɪʃə moˈtoːʁənˌvɛʁkə] ) has been used in several publications and advertisements in the past. Bayerische Motorenwerke translates into English as Bavarian Motor Works . The suffix AG, short for Aktiengesellschaft , signifies an incorporated entity owned by shareholders, thus akin to "Inc." (US) or PLC, "Public Limited Company" (UK). The terms Beemer, Bimmer and Bee-em are sometimes used as slang for BMW in

1674-412: Is now known as BMW Motorrad . Their first successful motorcycle after the failed Helios and Flink, was the " R32 " in 1923, though production originally began in 1921. This had a " boxer " twin engine, in which a cylinder projects into the air-flow from each side of the machine. Apart from their single-cylinder models (basically to the same pattern), all their motorcycles used this distinctive layout until

1767-591: The 225xe using a 1.5 L three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine with an electric motor, the 330e / 530e using a 2.0 L four-cylinder engine with an electric motor, and the 550e / 750e using a 3.0 L six-cylinder engine with an electric motor. Also, crossover and SUV plug-in hybrid models have been released using i technology: X1 xDrive25e , X2 xDrive25e , X3 xDrive30e , and X5 xDrive40e . The BMW M GmbH subsidiary (called BMW Motorsport GmbH until 1993) started making high-performance versions of various BMW models in 1978. As of November 2024 ,

1860-624: The BMW M3 in 1986. Also in 1986, BMW introduced its first V12 engine in the 750i luxury sedan. The 1989 BMW Z1 marked BMW's return to making a two-seat roadster, the 1995 BMW Z3 was their first mass-production two-seat roadster, and the 1999 BMW X5 was the company's first entry into the SUV market. The company purchased the Rover Group in 1994, but the takeover was not successful and caused BMW large financial losses. In 2000, BMW sold off most of

1953-668: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was commissioned by the UK government to write a report explaining why and how the British motorcycle industry had been out-competed by its Japanese competitors. The report concluded that the Japanese firms, including Honda, had sought a very high scale of production (they had made a large number of motorbikes) in order to benefit from economies of scale and learning curve effects. It blamed

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2046-863: The Civic GX as the greenest car in America for seven consecutive years. Honda currently builds vehicles in factories located in Japan, the United States of America, Canada, China, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Honda is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan and has been since it started production in 1955. At its peak in 1982, Honda manufactured almost three million motorcycles annually. By 2006, this figure had been reduced to around 550,000 but

2139-713: The Fit and Accord. Honda's first hybrid electric vehicle was the 1999 Insight . The Civic was first offered as a hybrid in 2001, and the Accord followed in 2004. In 2008, the company launched the Clarity , a fuel cell car . In 2008, Honda increased global production to meet the demand for small cars and hybrids in the U.S. and emerging markets. The company shuffled U.S. production to keep factories busy and boost car output while building fewer minivans and sport utility vehicles as light truck sales fell. Its first entrance into

2232-582: The Isle of Man TT . BMW is headquartered in Munich and produces motor vehicles in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands (ceased in 2023), the United States, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and China. The Quandt family  [ de ] is a long-term shareholder of the company, following investments by the brothers Herbert and Harald Quandt in 1959 that saved BMW from bankruptcy , with

2325-481: The K Series , shaft drive but water-cooled and with either three or four cylinders mounted in a straight line from front to back. Shortly after, BMW also started making the chain-driven F and G series with single and parallel twin Rotax engines. In the early 1990s, BMW updated the airhead Boxer engine which became known as the oilhead . In 2002, the oilhead engine had two spark plugs per cylinder. In 2004 it added

2418-644: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ’s Madrid Yearly Review ranked BMW's number of marks applications filled under the Madrid System as 2nd in the world, with 124 trademarks applications submitted during 2023. The key trends of the BMW Group are (as at the financial year ending December 31): BMW began production of motorcycle engines and then motorcycles after World War I. Its motorcycle brand

2511-495: The X Series SUVs and crossovers are: The current model line of the Z Series two-door roadsters is the Z4 (model code G29 ). All-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles are sold under the BMW i sub-brand. The current model range consists of: In addition, several plug-in hybrid models built on existing platforms have been marketed as iPerformance models. Examples include

2604-468: The 1960s, BMW expanded its range by adding coupé and luxury sedan models. The BMW 5 Series mid-size sedan range was introduced in 1972, followed by the BMW 3 Series compact sedans in 1975, the BMW 6 Series luxury coupés in 1976 and the BMW 7 Series large luxury sedans in 1978. The BMW M division released its first road car, a mid-engine supercar, in 1978. This was followed by the BMW M5 in 1984 and

2697-443: The 2006 and later BMW motorcycles paved the way for the introduction of electronic stability control , or anti-skid technology later in the 2007 model year. BMW has been an innovator in motorcycle suspension design, taking up telescopic front suspension long before most other manufacturers. Then they switched to an Earles fork , front suspension by swinging fork (1955 to 1969). Most modern BMWs are truly rear swingarm, single sided at

2790-553: The Accord and Civic (with the exception of its USA-market 1993–97 Passport which was part of a vehicle exchange program with Isuzu (part of the Subaru-Isuzu joint venture)) have always employed Front-wheel drive powertrain implementation, which is currently a long-held Honda tradition. Honda also installed new technologies into their products, first as optional equipment, then later standard, like anti-lock brakes , speed-sensitive power steering , and multi-port fuel injection in

2883-756: The British-built model, HW, were produced with MacPherson struts . Engine choices were: The four-door saloon was offered with four-wheel drive in Japan, a system later shared with the Civic-based compact SUV, the Honda CR-V . The Japanese range received a facelift in February 1991, when the twin-cam ZC engine was also added to the JZ-Si model. The facelift included new taillights and a more upright front design, with more bulbous headlights. The Concerto

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2976-650: The Civic is the second-longest continuously running nameplate from a Japanese manufacturer; only its perennial rival, the Toyota Corolla , introduced in 1966, has been in production longer. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude , comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded. Having gone through several generational changes, the Civic has become larger and more upmarket , and it currently slots between

3069-463: The English language and are sometimes used interchangeably for cars and motorcycles. The circular blue and white BMW logo or roundel evolved from the circular Rapp Motorenwerke company logo, which featured a black ring bearing the company name surrounding the company logo, an image of a horse head on a plinth. BMW retained Rapp's black ring inscribed with the company name, but the interior of

3162-541: The M lineup is: The letter "M" is also often used in the marketing of BMW's regular models, for example the F20 M140i model, the G11 M760Li model and various optional extras called "M Sport", "M Performance" or similar. BMW has a long history of motorsport activities, including: The global BMW Headquarters in Munich represents the cylinder head of a 4-cylinder engine . It was designed by Karl Schwanzer and

3255-564: The Rover brands, retaining only the Mini brand. In 1998, BMW also acquired the rights to the Rolls-Royce brand from Vickers . The first modern mass-produced turbocharged petrol engine was introduced in 2006 (from 1973 to 1975, BMW built 1,672 units of a turbocharged BMW M10 engine for the BMW 02 Series ), with most engines switching over to turbocharging over the 2010s. The first hybrid BMW

3348-473: The U.S. market was a story of "miscalculation, serendipity, and organizational learning" – in other words, Honda's success was due to the adaptability and hard work of its staff, rather than any long-term strategy. For example, Honda's initial plan on entering the US market was to compete in large motorcycles, around 300 cc. Honda's motorcycles in this class suffered performance and reliability problems when ridden

3441-587: The US to suspend production in its factories. It resumed automobile, engine and transmission production at its US plants on 11 May 2020. Honda and General Motors announced in September 2020 a North American alliance to begin in 2021. According to The Detroit Free Press, "The proposed alliance will include sharing a range of vehicles, to be sold under each company's distinct brands, as well as cooperation in purchasing, research and development, and connected services." In 2021, Honda announced its intention to become

3534-694: The US. Honda power equipment includes: BMW The companies automobiles are marketed under the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, and motorcycles are marketed under the BMW Motorrad brand. Also in 2023, BMW was the world's ninth-largest producer of motor vehicles , with 2,555,341 vehicles produced and in 2023 the 6th largest by revenue. In 2023, the company was ranked 46th in the Forbes Global 2000 . The company has significant motor-sport history, especially in touring cars , sports cars , and

3627-476: The United States and Canada due to an issue with seat belts in the car not latching correctly. Among the models recalled were the 2017-2020 CR-V, the 2018 and 2019 Accord, the 2018-2020 Odyssey, the 2019 Insight, and the Acura RDX from 2019 and 2020. According to the recall, the seat belts in the front seats would break open on impact increasing the risk of injury in a crash. On 21 December 2023, Honda announced

3720-459: The air-cooled N360, called the Honda Life , which was water-cooled. The Honda Life represented Honda's efforts in competing in the kei car segment, offering sedan, delivery van and small pick-up platforms on a shared chassis. The Life Step Van had a novel approach that, while not initially a commercial success, appeared to be an influence to vehicles with the front passengers sitting behind

3813-518: The air-cooled, four-cylinder, gasoline-powered Honda 1300 which was introduced in 1969. The Civic was a hatchback that gained wide popularity internationally, but it wasn't the first two-door hatchback built by Honda. That was the Honda N360 , a Kei car that was adapted for international sale as the N600. The Civic, which appeared in 1972 and replaced the N600 also had a smaller sibling that replaced

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3906-565: The back (compare with the regular swinging fork usually, and wrongly, called swinging arm ). Some BMWs started using yet another trademark front suspension design, the Telelever, in the early 1990s. Like the Earles fork, the Telelever significantly reduces dive under braking. BMW Group, on 31 January 2013, announced that Pierer Industrie AG has bought Husqvarna Motorcycles for an undisclosed amount, which will not be revealed by either party in

3999-437: The black outline encircling the rondel. The logo is used for BMW's branding communications but it is not used on vehicles. The slogan 'The Ultimate Driving Machine' was first used in North America in 1974. In 2010, this long-lived campaign was mostly supplanted by a campaign intended to make the brand more approachable and to better appeal to women, 'Joy'. By 2012 BMW had returned to 'The Ultimate Driving Machine'. In 2023,

4092-596: The company. Honda also aided the war effort by assisting other companies in automating the production of military aircraft propellers. The relationships Honda cultivated with personnel at Toyota, Nakajima Aircraft Company and the Imperial Japanese Navy would be instrumental in the postwar period. A US B-29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki's Yamashita plant in 1944, and the Itawa plant collapsed on 13 January 1945 Mikawa earthquake . Soichiro Honda sold

4185-515: The decline of the British motorcycle industry on the failure of British managers to invest enough in their businesses to profit from economies of scale and scope . The second explanation was offered in 1984 by Richard Pascale, who had interviewed the Honda executives responsible for the firm's entry into the U.S. market. As opposed to the tightly focused strategy of low cost and high scale that BCG accredited to Honda, Pascale found that their entry into

4278-681: The desire to create a more environmentally friendly company image. The Honda Aircraft Company as established in 2006 as a wholly owned subsidiary to manufacture and sell the HondaJet family of aircraft. The first deliveries to customers began in December 2015. On 23 February 2015, Honda announced that CEO and President Takanobu Ito would step down and be replaced by Takahiro Hachigo in June of that year; additional retirements by senior managers and directors were expected. In October 2019, Honda

4371-542: The early 1980s. Many BMW's are still produced in this layout, which is designated the R Series . The entire BMW Motorcycle production has, since 1969, been located at the company's Berlin-Spandau factory. During the Second World War, BMW produced the BMW R75 motorcycle with a motor-driven sidecar attached, combined with a lockable differential , this made the vehicle very capable off-road. In 1982, came

4464-517: The early 1980s. This desire to be the first to try new approaches is evident with the creation of the first Japanese luxury chain Acura , and was also evident with the all-aluminum, mid-engined sports car, the Honda NSX , which also introduced variable valve timing technology, which Honda calls VTEC . The Civic family is a line of compact cars developed and manufactured by Honda. In North America,

4557-452: The end of World War I, BMW remained in business by producing motorcycle engines, agricultural equipment, household items, and railway brakes. The company produced its first motorcycle, the BMW R 32 , in 1923. BMW became an automobile manufacturer in 1928 when it purchased Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which, at the time, built the Austin 7 under licence from Dixi . The first car sold as a BMW

4650-445: The engine, a large cargo area with a flat roof and a liftgate installed in back, and utilizing a transversely installed engine with a front-wheel-drive powertrain. As Honda entered into automobile manufacturing in the late 1960s where Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan had been making cars since before WWII, Honda instilled a sense of doing things a little differently than its Japanese competitors. Its mainstay products like

4743-668: The engines ran out, Honda began building their own copy of the Tohatsu engine, and supplying these to customers to attach to their bicycles. This was the Honda A-Type, nicknamed the Bata Bata for the sound the engine made. In 1949, the Honda Technical Research Institute was liquidated for ¥ 1,000,000, or about US$ 5,000 today; these funds were used to incorporate Honda Motor Co., Ltd. At about

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4836-580: The establishment of GE Honda Aero Engines in 2004 and the Honda HA-420 HondaJet , which began production in 2012. Honda has two joint-ventures in China: Dongfeng Honda and GAC Honda . In 2013, Honda invested about 5.7% (US$ 6.8 billion) of its revenues into research and development. Also in 2013, Honda became the first Japanese automaker to be a net exporter from the United States, exporting 108,705 Honda and Acura models, while importing only 88,357. Throughout his life, Honda's founder, Soichiro Honda (1906–1991), had an interest in automobiles. He worked as

4929-403: The first Honda to go by the name Dream. In 1961, Honda achieved its first Grand Prix victories and World Championships in the 125 cc and 250 cc categories. Honda Motor Company grew in a short time to become the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964. The first production automobile from Honda was the T360 mini pick-up truck, which went on sale in August 1963. Powered by

5022-401: The first-generation Odyssey and the CR-V , and a refocusing away from some of the numerous sedans and coupes that were popular with the company's engineers but not with the buying public. The most shocking change to Honda came when Kawamoto ended the company's successful participation in Formula One after the 1992 season, citing costs in light of the takeover threat from Mitsubishi as well as

5115-518: The four-door Civic saloon. In many European markets it acted as replacement for the slow-selling Honda Integra five-door liftback. The saloon version was produced until 1993 for most nations, especially in the United Kingdom, where sales were lower compared to the more upscale Rover 200 and Rover 400 Series . Honda intended for the car to appeal to European tastes. The Japanese-built models – MA1 (1.5-liter), MA2 (1.6-liter), and MA3 (1.6-liter 4WD) – were produced with double wishbone suspension whilst

5208-432: The future. The company is headed by Stephan Pierer (CEO of KTM). Pierer Industrie AG is 51% owner of KTM and 100% owner of Husqvarna. In September 2018, BMW unveiled a new self-driving motorcycle with BMW Motorrad with a goal of using the technology to help improve road safety. The design of the bike was inspired by the company's BMW R1200 GS model. The current model lines of BMW cars are: The current model lines of

5301-400: The globe. These plants are located in China, the United States, Pakistan, Canada, England, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, México, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Taiwan, Perú and Argentina. As of July 2010, 89% of Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the United States were built in North American plants, up from 82.2% a year earlier. This shields profits from

5394-457: The head of the BMW Group. In January 2021, BMW announced that its sales in 2020 fell by 8.4 percent due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. However, in the fourth quarter of 2020, BMW witnessed a rise of 3.2% in its customers' demands. This recovery was supported by the company's adoption of widely accepted technologies and integration of third-party services such as Apply Pay and on-demand music. On 18 January 2022 BMW announced

5487-404: The logo is based on the image of an airplane propeller spinning in a blue sky. This myth likely stems from a 1929 BMW advertisement that depicted the logo superimposed on a rotating propeller. However, the logo predates that advertisement by 12 years. The current iteration of the logo was introduced in 2020, removing 3D effects that had been used in previous renderings of the logo while removing

5580-543: The models TRX 90X, TRX 250X, TRX 400x, TRX 450R and TRX 700. Power equipment production started in 1953 with H-type engine (prior to motorcycles). Honda power equipment reached record sales in 2007 with 6.4 million units sold annually. By 2010 ( Fiscal year ended 31 March) this figure had decreased to 4.7 million units. Cumulative production of power products has exceeded 85 million units annually (as of September 2008). In September 2023, Honda ceased sales of gasoline lawn mowers and some other power equipment in

5673-439: The name was founded by Karl Rapp initially as Rapp Motorenwerke . The name and Rapp Motorenwerke 's engine-production assets were transferred to Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in 1922, who adopted the name the same year. BMW's first product was produced for fighter aircraft of the Luftstreitkräfte . It was a straight-six aircraft engine called the BMW IIIa , designed in the spring of 1917 by engineer Max Friz . Following

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5766-1207: The pickup segment, the light-duty Ridgeline, won Truck of the Year from Motor Trend magazine in 2006. Also in 2006, the redesigned Civic won Car of the Year from the magazine, giving Honda a rare double win of Motor Trend honors. It is reported that Honda plans to increase hybrid sales in Japan to more than 20% of its total sales in the fiscal year 2011, from 14.8% in the previous year. Five of United States Environmental Protection Agency 's top ten most fuel-efficient cars from 1984 to 2010 come from Honda, more than any other automakers. The five models are: 2000–2006 Honda Insight (53 mpg ‑US or 4.4 L/100 km or 64 mpg ‑imp combined), 1986–1987 Honda Civic Coupe HF (46 mpg ‑US or 5.1 L/100 km or 55 mpg ‑imp combined), 1994–1995 Honda Civic hatchback VX (43 mpg ‑US or 5.5 L/100 km or 52 mpg ‑imp combined), 2006– Honda Civic Hybrid (42 mpg ‑US or 5.6 L/100 km or 50 mpg ‑imp combined), and 2010– Honda Insight (41 mpg ‑US or 5.7 L/100 km or 49 mpg ‑imp combined). The ACEEE has also rated

5859-482: The relatively long distances of the US highways. When the team found that the scooters they were using to get themselves around their U.S. base of San Francisco attracted positive interest from consumers they fell back on selling the Super Cub instead. The most recent school of thought on Honda's strategy was put forward by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad in 1989. Creating the concept of core competencies with Honda as an example, they argued that Honda's success

5952-417: The release of the first EVs scheduled for 2026 in the US under the "Afeela" brand. On 2 February 2023, Honda announced a deal with American car company General Motors to produce cars using a new hydrogen fuel system. The aim is to ramp up the hydrogen powered cells in their Electric vehicles as well as trucks, construction machinery, and power stations. On 15 March 2023, Honda recalled 500,000 vehicles in

6045-406: The remaining shares owned by the public . The Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik was founded in 1910 by Gustav Otto in the Kingdom of Bavaria , which was a state of the German Empire . The firm was reorganized on 7 March 1916 into Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG . This company was then renamed to Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) in 1922. However, the name BMW dates back to 1913, when a company to use

6138-440: The ring is quartered blue and white, reminiscent of the coat of arms and flag of Bavaria (which in turn are based on the arms of the historic House of Wittelsbach , which ruled Bavaria for many centuries). The logo does not bear the distinctive lozenge shape found on the coat of arms, however, as local laws at the time it was introduced forbade the use of state coats of arms on commercial logos. A persistent myth claims that

6231-403: The salvageable remains of the company to Toyota after the war for ¥450,000 and used the proceeds to found the Honda Technical Research Institute in October 1946. With a staff of 12 men working in a 16 m (170 sq ft) shack, they built and sold improvised motorized bicycles , using a supply of 500 two-stroke 50 cc Tohatsu war surplus radio generator engines . When

6324-402: The same time Honda hired engineer Kihachiro Kawashima, and Takeo Fujisawa who provided indispensable business and marketing expertise to complement Soichiro Honda's technical bent. The close partnership between Soichiro Honda and Fujisawa lasted until they stepped down together in October 1973. The first complete motorcycle with both the frame and engine made by Honda was the 1949 D-Type ,

6417-606: The second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in 2001. In 2015, Honda was the eighth largest automobile manufacturer in the world. Honda was the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to release a dedicated luxury brand, Acura , on 27 March 1986. Aside from their core automobile and motorcycle businesses, Honda also manufactures garden equipment, marine engines, personal watercraft , power generators, and other products. Since 1986, Honda has been involved with artificial intelligence/robotics research and released their ASIMO robot in 2000. They have also ventured into aerospace with

6510-405: The sixth generation Civic range as it, and the Domani, were based on the fifth generation (EG, EH) Civic's platform instead. Honda Honda Motor Co., Ltd. ( Japanese : 本田技研工業株式会社 , Hepburn : Honda Giken Kōgyō Kabushiki gaisha , lit.   ' Honda Institute of Technology and Industry Joint-Stock Company ' , IPA: [honda] ; / ˈ h ɒ n d ə / )

6603-409: The slogan " You meet the nicest people on a Honda ." In contrast to the prevailing negative stereotypes of motorcyclists in America as tough, antisocial rebels, this campaign suggested that Honda motorcycles were made for the everyman. The campaign was hugely successful; the ads ran for three years, and by the end of 1963 alone, Honda had sold 90,000 motorcycles. Taking Honda's story as an archetype of

6696-417: The smaller manufacturer entering a new market already occupied by highly dominant competitors, the story of their market entry, and their subsequent huge success in the U.S. and around the world has been the subject of some academic controversy. Competing explanations have been advanced to explain Honda's strategy and the reasons for their success. The first of these explanations was put forward when, in 1975,

6789-464: The successful establishment of Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. in Marysville, Ohio . Irimajiri and Kawamoto shared a friendly rivalry within Honda; owing to health issues, Irimajiri would resign in 1992. Following the death of Soichiro Honda and the departure of Irimajiri, Honda found itself quickly being outpaced in product development by other Japanese automakers and was caught off-guard by

6882-537: The truck and sport utility vehicle boom of the 1990s, all which took a toll on the profitability of the company. Japanese media reported in 1992 and 1993 that Honda was at serious risk of an unwanted and hostile takeover by Mitsubishi Motors , which at the time was a larger automaker by volume and was flush with profits from its successful Pajero and Diamante models. Kawamoto acted quickly to change Honda's corporate culture, rushing through market-driven product development that resulted in recreational vehicles such as

6975-484: The world's first carmaker to sell a vehicle with level 3 self-driving technology. In March 2022, Honda announced it would develop and build electric vehicles in a joint venture with electronics giant Sony . The latter is set to provide its imaging, sensing, network and other technologies while Honda would be responsible for the car manufacturing processes. The Sony Honda Mobility company was officially announced on 13 October 2022 with pre-orders said to open in 2025 and

7068-507: The world. In 1986, Honda introduced the successful Acura brand to the American market in an attempt to gain ground in the luxury vehicle market. The year 1991 saw the introduction of the Honda NSX supercar, the first all-aluminum monocoque vehicle that incorporated a mid-engine V6 with variable-valve timing . In 1990, CEO Tadashi Kume was succeeded by Nobuhiko Kawamoto . Kawamoto was selected over Shoichiro Irimajiri , who oversaw

7161-593: The yen's advance to a 15-year high against the dollar. American Honda Motor Company is based in Torrance, California . Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) is Honda's motorsport division. Honda Canada Inc. is headquartered in Markham, Ontario , it was originally planned to be located in Richmond Hill, Ontario , but delays led them to look elsewhere. Their manufacturing division, Honda of Canada Manufacturing ,

7254-549: Was a badge-engineered Rover 218 SLD Turbo and thus has completely different sheetmetal from Honda's own Concertos. Introduced in August 1994, it was only available as a five-door liftback. In addition to the different appearance and interior (including the Rover's wood trim), the TD has Rover's MacPherson strut front suspension rather than Honda's typical double wishbone setup as used on petrol-engined Concertos. The only difference

7347-538: Was a rebadged BMW Dixi called the BMW 3/15 , following BMW's acquisition of the car manufacturer Automobilwerk Eisenach. Throughout the 1930s, BMW expanded its range into sports cars and larger luxury cars. Aircraft engines, motorcycles, and automobiles would be BMW's main products until World War II. During the war, BMW concentrated on the BMW 801 aircraft engine using as many as 40,000 slave laborers. These consisted primarily of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps , most prominently Dachau . Motorcycles remained as

7440-594: Was a well-known German industrialist, joined the Nazi party in 1933 and made a fortune arming the German Wehrmacht, manufacturing weapons and batteries. Many of his enterprises were appropriated from Jewish owners under duress with minimal compensation. At least three of his enterprises made extensive use of slave laborers, as many as 50,000 in all. One of his battery factories had its own on-site concentration camp, complete with gallows. Life expectancy for laborers

7533-522: Was able to mass-produce piston rings acceptable to Toyota, using an automated process that could employ even unskilled wartime laborers. Tōkai Seiki was placed under the control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (called the Ministry of Munitions after 1943) at the start of World War II, and Soichiro Honda was demoted from president to senior managing director after Toyota took a 40% stake in

7626-506: Was based on a platform which was shared with the popular Civic . Just like the five-door Integra it replaced, it offered more features than the Civic and was aimed at a more prestigious section of the market. The styling of the Concerto reflected an influence from the Honda Ascot , most notably the six-light window treatment of the greenhouse . For France, Italy, and Portugal only, markets where diesel engines were essential offerings,

7719-511: Was commissioned to paint the BMW 3.0 CSL racing car driven by Hervé Poulain at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which became the first in the series of BMW Art Cars. Since Calder's work of art, many other renowned artists throughout the world have created BMW Art Cars, including David Hockney , Jenny Holzer , Roy Lichtenstein , Robert Rauschenberg , Frank Stella , and Andy Warhol . To date, a total of 19 BMW Art Cars, based on both racing and regular production vehicles, have been created. BMW sponsors

7812-406: Was completed in 1972. The building has become a European icon and was declared a protected historic building in 1999. The main tower consists of four vertical cylinders standing next to and across from each other. Each cylinder is divided horizontally in its center by a mold in the facade. Notably, these cylinders do not stand on the ground; they are suspended on a central support tower. BMW Museum

7905-523: Was due to its focus on leadership in the technology of internal combustion engines. For example, the high power-to-weight ratio engines Honda produced for its racing bikes provided technology and expertise which was transferable into mopeds. Honda's entry into the U.S. motorcycle market during the 1960s is used as a case study for teaching introductory strategy at business schools worldwide. Honda builds utility ATVs under models Recon, Rubicon, Rancher, Foreman and Rincon. Honda also builds sports ATVs under

7998-541: Was emblems and hubcaps. As with the Rover 218 SLD, the Concerto TD was fitted with Peugeot's 1.8-liter XUD7 engine . While arriving very late, several years after the range had been replaced in Japan, its mission appears to have succeeded: the TD version represented 94 percent of French Concerto sales in 1995. Production ended in October 1996. Honda stopped manufacturing the Concerto in Great Britain about

8091-414: Was expanded in 1955, through the production of the cheaper Isetta microcar under licence. Slow sales of luxury cars and small profit margins from microcars, meant BMW was in serious financial trouble and in 1959 the company was nearly taken over by rival Daimler-Benz. A large investment in BMW by Herbert Quandt and Harald Quandt resulted in the company surviving as a separate entity. Günther Quandt ,

8184-530: Was named for the musical composition and was a successor to the second generation Honda Ballade , a higher specification Honda Civic . All Japanese versions were exclusive to Japanese Honda dealerships called Honda Clio . The Concerto was sold in both liftback and saloon styles and built in two locations: Austin Rover's Longbridge plant for the European market, and by Honda in Suzuka, Mie , Japan. Japanese production began in June 1988, originally only as

8277-490: Was reported to be in talks with Hitachi to merge the two companies' car parts businesses, creating a components supplier with almost $ 17 billion in annual sales. In January 2020, Honda announced that it would be withdrawing employees working in the city of Wuhan , Hubei , China due to the COVID-19 pandemic . On 23 March 2020 due to the global spread of the virus, Honda became the first major automaker with operations in

8370-622: Was six months. While Quandt and BMW were not directly connected during the war, funds amassed in the Nazi era by his father allowed Herbert Quandt to buy BMW. The relative success of the small BMW 700 assisted in the company's recovery, allowing them to develop the New Class sedans. The 1962 introduction of the BMW New Class compact sedans was the beginning of BMW's reputation as a leading manufacturer of sport-oriented cars. Throughout

8463-452: Was still higher than its three domestic competitors. In 2017, India became the largest motorcycle market for Honda. In India, Honda is leading in the scooters segment, with 59% market share. During the 1960s when it was a small manufacturer, Honda broke out of the Japanese motorcycle market and began exporting to the United States. Working with the advertising agency Grey Advertising , Honda created an innovative marketing campaign, using

8556-560: Was the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7 , and BMW's first mass-production electric car was the BMW i3 city car, which was released in 2013, (from 1968 to 1972, BMW built two battery-electric BMW 1602 Elektro saloons for the 1972 Olympic Games). After many years of establishing a reputation for sporting rear-wheel drive cars, BMW's first front-wheel drive car was the 2014 BMW 2 Series Active Tourer multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) . In March 2018, Daimler and BMW merged their mobility services. In August 2019, Oliver Zipse replaced Harald Krüger as

8649-654: Was valued at US$ 50.4 billion in October 2018. Honda's automotive manufacturing ambitions can be traced back to 1963, with the Honda T360 , a Kei truck built for the Japanese market. This was followed by the two-door roadster , the Honda S500 also introduced in 1963. In 1965, Honda built a two-door commercial delivery van, named the Honda L700 . Honda's first four-door sedan was not the Honda Accord , but

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